Massimiliano Allegri was very satisfied after his AC Milan side signed off the year in the best possible way, with a 3-0 home win over Hellas Verona.
It took 45 minutes for Milan to open the scoring, but it was rather predictably Christian Pulisic who was on hand to fire in a flick-on from a corner. Then Christopher Nkunku finally got off the mark in Serie A with a brace inside four second half minutes to seal an eventual three-goal victory.
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Milan had a chance of ended 2025 on top of the table, but Inter’s win against Atalanta means second will have to do. It is certainly a long way off where things were one year ago, with a managerial change preceding a chaotic January window.
Allegri’s post-match presser
Allegri spoke to the reporters who gathered for the post-match press conference at San Siro to offer further thoughts on the victory over Verona, after having spoken to DAZN. His words are via MilanNews.
What is your assessment of Milan’s season so far?
“I’m happy with what we’re doing, but we can’t lower the bar. Today we played a tidy game, even though after the 3-0 lead we should have done better, not by playing static ball possession, but by playing dynamic ball possession.”
Did you tell your team to let Nkunku kick?
“Nkunku is a penalty taker – he’s only missed one out of 18 in his career. This is an important penalty. There are times in the season when you have to take it like this. It was right that he took it. And the third goal is very nice, because it’s the work of a true centre-forward.”
How important is Pulisic?
“He’s doing well, even if he’s still not well physically with this minor problem with his flexor. In fact, he’s making some poor passing choices and delaying plays a bit.”
Do you take credit?
“The club has done a good job in the transfer market, we worked together. The group of guys I have is extraordinary, in fact, I struggle to get angry every now and then. We need to work hard to improve. I told the guys that every day at Milanello is an opportunity to improve.
“We need to do our best to maintain this enthusiasm, even playing games like today: organised, opening the scoring, and then holding on. We’ve conceded too many easy goals lately, we’ve become a bit unsteady. I wish you all a good year, and we’ll see you again in Cagliari, where it will be a very difficult match.”
It was a well taken penalty kick. He kept it very low and towards the corner
Waaaay too center. Had the keeper guessed right, it would have been an easy save.
Yes, I agree, overall poor penalty, he didn’t want to risk it though and probably rightly so considering his state of mind.
This. He was 100% focused on hitting the target instead of blasting it to the stands as I predicted. 😀
He sent the keeper the wrong way a finished it perfectly.
Great penalty
He did nothing to send the keeper wrong way. The poor guy didn’t even try to read Nkunku’s intentions but instead dived early to the corner Nkunku was never going to shoot with that body angle.
Nor Nkunku looked at where the keeper was going. He had already made the decision to shoot left no matter what. Keeper just lost his nerves.